Gestaltered States Begins!
Brazil is an immense nation of different terrains as well as various cultures and diverse peoples. Its towering mountains, lush rain forests, lofty, forested highlands, vast pampas, coastal sand dunes, and extensive plains, are bathed by sparkling blue lakes, serene lagoons, and mighty rivers. Not only gifted with beauty, it is also rich in mineral resources such as gold, diamonds, quartz, beryllium, iron, bauxite, and tin, and petroleum products as well as agricultural products such as coffee, sugarcane, and papayas. The people are a mixture of Portuguese settlers, native indians, and African slaves, one of the most racially-mixed peoples in the world, and have a love for exotic, drum-pounding music and dance. The two headed beast that is Sinnertwin stomps over to a metal wall and starts to chomp it down with both mouths, not really caring about any attacking or anything. "Mmmpph" he mutters as he chomps down. "Tha's good eatin'. Cutthroat, where'd ye get that lovely knife sharpener, I want one o' those for me study." Sinnertwin's 'study' is actually a bit of wood with a tin can nailed to it as a 'penholder' which he just puts pins in, but at least hes trying. Scavenger lets the over the top ferocity run off his shoulders as he draws his blaster and goes 'shopping'. He shoots himself a clear pathway, it really does't take much shooting to do that, the fear is a great motivator for getting out of harms way. His shovel raised and honing in on high quality. Cutthroat finishes grinding his blade on the whetstone in the skull. He drops it to the ground and crushes it beneath his iron jackboot. "No prisoners. Hnnnn yea." He giggles to himself as he breaks off into a run down to the facility. He fires a laser into the face of the first person he encounters and then laughs as he jumps onto their chest. Decepticon Shuttle blazes a path across the sky down towards the airspace over Brazil. Dipping to one side to jink around a passing airliner, he drops off altitude at a rapid pace as he closes in on the scene of the excitement below. Disgusting Ape Creature doesn't shoot a hole for himself into the wall of the plant like Hun-Grr did--he just walks through it without even stopping. "SKOOOSH!" he cries out as the plant workers flee from him. Many slip and slide about comically as they try to dart between his legs to safety. Hook arrives near the manufacturing plant in his robot mode. He stopms his way through a simple chain-link fence, and glances around at the various aircraft in the area. "Scavenger! Have you detected any materials suitable for harvesting?" Hook asks his fellow Constructicon, brandising his plasma pistol at any humans still in his path. Dead End strides across to one of the storage warehouses near to him before pulling back his fist and punching a hole through it. He drags his hand to the left before tugging a long rent in the steel and peering through it. "I don't see why we came all the way here...and for what? More metal? How dull." Flying in at his normal crusing speed of Mach 2, Silverbolt doesn't even bother to fly over the hard deck. He's a mech on a mission and getting there fast is indeed half the mission. As he drops down, he transforms and lands in a crouch, righting himself as if he'd been doing that for years. Taking a few steps towards the building, he calls out "Come on out, Decepticons! We all know how this is going to end up, so why make with all the ruckus?" He moves closer, stepping over the fence and starting to make his way towards the building proper. "Come on out, drop whatever super-scheme you're working on for the week and then fly away and we can save ourselves a cycle in the med bay." He stops moving and crosse his arms, taking the 'I'm not joking with you stance' that a human mother would take with unruly kids complete with foot tapping. "I mean, it can't be a good scheme, Galvatron's not here to lead you to defeat." It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's... what the heck IS that anyway? It sure doesn't look like a plane. Well, whatever it is, it's Scattershot! Burning through the sky! Defying all the laws of physics! Refusing to acknowledge gravity! The terrifying Technobot looks as enraged as a starfighter can as he makes his entrance. "TERRORCONNNNNNNNNS!" he howls, wing- and turret-blasters raining fire down towards the factory. "COME OUT AND FIGHT LIKE MECHS! COME OUT! AND! FIIIIIIGHT!" It seems like he wants something. I wonder what it could be? In the sky an Autobot soars, anti-gravs holding him aloft as he skims along the Earth's gravitational pull. Radio calls are sent out erratically, the flier communicating with terran ground control below to ensure he has flight clearance within their airspace. And to ensure that they don't scramble any jets against him, thinking he is also with the Decepticon attack. The flying banks and turns, holding a PSP within his hands, checking back with base and following the flight path Silverbolt so recently used. He's a bit slower than the silver jet, thanks to only having anti-gravs, but he's making good time. And so eventually an ice blue form is seen descending towards the scene of the attack. Trident maglocked to his back, forcefield systems primed. Yes, DepthCharge has arrived. Sony PSP messages up to Depthcharge. "Depth, has the entire area been evacuated yet. Your hands block me from seeing anything beyond...well what's between them." If his screen was covered, Spectrum would have a tiny avatar glaring up at the aquatbot. "Also, have we made preperations for a huge scale attack?" He asks, he sounds like Prowl if anyone had the pleasure of working with him. Regardless, the gamebot then leaps from Depthcharges hand, and through an amazing display of reconfiguring, he becomes a huge Autobot. His size 25 feet in height, amazing since he came from a terran sized gaming platform. "Lets prepare to attack!" He roars, and then unleashes his energon lance. His body freefalls, that is, until he fires on of his chains up to Depthcharge, if he grabs and carries Spectrum to the battlefield. Flying besides Scattershot, as is his right as a futuristic, Cybertronian car... jet... flying automobile... thing, Strafe is much less boisterous than his gun-toting commander, but no less furious. The white-and-red carjethoverflyingcraft soars through the air, engines at full power and photon cannons already thrumming with life. "Y-yeah! What Scattershot said! We're gonna turn you T-Terrorcons to slag!" A pause, as Strafe ruminates over his choice of words and where the Terrorcons might be. "Y-you think they're planning an ambush? Who knows where they could be?! Maybe--AAH!!" His cannons fire streaking beams of light across the ground, tearing it asunder before it comes to an abrupt stop. "O-oh no, that was just some debris. Sorry." Getting there fast may be half the mission, but getting there fast enough to get a good look at the scenery is half the fun. After a full-out sprint in response to Silverbolt's call, Fireflight arrives just in time to see Silverbolt land and try to reason with the enemy... and Scattershot diving in, vocalizer blazing with guns likely to follow. Wow. Fireflight is very happy not to be a Technobot, and he'll be even happier when the rest of his own team arrives. "I've got your six, Silverbolt. The others are on their way." There is absolutely no good reason but convenience for why Streetwise was anywhere near driving range of this brewing mess than...He'd come to personally coller up his brother and haul him back to base, there was a lot of work to do. Groove was the scapegoat 'story' and his habit of wandering had taken him into the area, alledgedly. Besides that, Brazil was an interesting country in of itself, a little sightseeing hadn't hurt to go along with his review of humankind's expanding culture and nuances. But that was for another time, the Protectobot had long since turned his wheels in the direction of the plant tracked his comrades across the sky who'd arrive before he did. And evidently, 'started' the fireworks perhaps. Really, some gestalt teams... Extremely Old Geraldo Rivera says, "This is Geraldo Rivera reporting to you, once again, live from the Devicias del Plotos aircraft assembly plant here in Brazil. The Autobots have just arrived at the scene of the raid, and we are expecting a MAJOR confrontation. There will likely be many deaths and catastrophic destruction all across the plant as the two superpowers wage war." Scavenger turns slightly towards Hook and raises his free hand, pointing first at one newer aircraft. Then another. and then finally resting his finger pointing at the plant itself, towards the end with the loading bay doors... his shovel twitches like a dogs nose. Good thing he has no tail to wag. He glances from Hook to Scrapper and then turns his optics back in the direction of the plant warehouse. Marching now. Cue the Green Beret song for the Constructies? Or maybe 'We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs. Drink up me hearties yo ho'. But ofcourse, where there are mercenaries and pirates, there are also the proper uniformed straight laced by the book goodie two-shoe cog-blockers. And they know how to not sneak up on you. They've got it nailed. And they want to nail Scavenger and his party before getting the riches. He turns and points, proclaiming, "Oh no, Autobots!" He points emphasizing what he notices. Slingshot is somewhere behind everyone else. Slowaft. He'll be up to shooting in a moment-- probably whatever he sees-- but... not for a minute, at least. A dark cloud flies into view and the whole world seems to be a little less bright and cheery, rejoice for it seems that Dreadwind has found out about this little mission or, more likely, ordered to go help so that they can get some peace back at the base. Not bothering with coded channels or any other such pointless wastes of time he radios his fellow Decepticons, "I don't suppose that anyone has a plan or anything, not that any plan ever works out properly, inevitably they all end in pain and suffering." Disgusting Ape Creature pokes his head back out of the assembly plant, leaning back as he watches the Autobots fly towards him. "Skoosh Autobots?" he asks Hun-Grrr. "Or we skoosh amuliumin?" He scratches his head, slime from his hand dripping down onto his face. "Don't know what to do...." So, he simply stands there, a puddle of ooze forming at his feet as people try to run out of the breach he made, only to slip and land on their butts. In fact, most of the injuries at the site will probably be due to Blot's slime. Well, at first, anyway... Decepticon Shuttle dips down over the aircraft plant, overflying the scene first at supersonic speeds before he banks back. A quick transformation into robot mode not only slows him down, but has him flying 'superman style' back towards the chaos as he sets down at the other end with a heavy *THOOM* of his large body touching down. "I dunno if this is a good idea, comin to a Terrorcon party. There's usually alot of slime or somethin here." Hook nods to Scavenger as he indicates the location of the best materials. "Of course the Autobots are coming. This is all over this grimy planet's news broadcasts by now... Try to keep a low profile, Let the Terrorcons draw the Autobot's fire." Hook replies, and proceeds towards the plant, entering through one of the holes made by a previous entering Decepticon. Hr grips his plasma pistol firmly in his hand, just in case. Dead End turns from his moody study of the metal stacked inside the building as he turns to look in the direction of the approaching Autobot. He shrugs and walks over to stand where he can get a better view of them before a low sighing sound escapes him. "Autobots. Why am I not surprised?" He then transforms and backs himself around the side of another nearby building to get cover. The Terror King can hear the Autobots coming from miles away. Heck, he can smell them coming even father away. Their putrid energon and oil is an unmistakable stench that permeates the air looong after it has passed through. And what is worse.. his nemesis is here. Never has the babbling techno fool learned his subsidiary role. Outside he hears the shouting, and yelling continuing of the humans pests as they still are scampering away in their rusted, beat up terran cars. The Khan stops stock-piling the sheet metal, the source of the mission at hand (really big pile by now that someone else can load into maybe a shuttle), and looks to his fellow Terrors. "Terrorcons.. it seem that we now have some unwanted guests to our banquet." He says this as he picks up another sheet of metal and rips it in two and stars munching on the pieces. What should we do about them?" The large Terror turns and stalks back out of the blown hole in the plant's wall to the grounds outside. "Terrorcons!!" he shouts out.. "Our current mission has ended! We now have a new one! Destroy these Autosum fools! Terrorcons.. Combine, and DESTROY!! Merge.. to form... ABOMINUS!!" Hun-Grrr shouts, "Terrorcons, MERGE to form Abominus!" With a shudder of metal, the Terrorcons undergo a stunning transformation and combine into the mighty form of Abominus! Scavenger nods to Hook. Ofcourse. Brutes for brute work. Brains for ... well farmer work. Harvest time. He follows Hook and Scrapper in, blaster still at hand. He steps over ground rubble and keeps his shovel raised. Honing. Can you smell what the humans are cookin? He can. Nice metal. Yummy grade. Suffice to say, the location of one notable Decepticon was all but impossible to miss. The gestalt fairly loomed above much else, its figure newly merged and preparing to make every red-symbol'd 'bot wince. Maybe even Decepticons, Primus knew Abominus' aim wasn't exactly perfect. It was something Streetwise was hoping'd get him off the hook atleast once, then again, it only really needed to /hit/ once. Tyres squealed as he approached the cordoned off area, transforming swiftly, flipping up into the air and over it. His gun lay nestled in his hand, and his gaze tried to seek out anything...lesser that was suspicious. The brains of this couldn't be the Terrorcons, the Constructicons now...if they hadn't merged, he might be able to help out with that. The lone Protectobot advanced with some caution, shooing away humans towards...anyplace Abominus wasn't. Not that they needed help, the local bands were a riot of chatter. Scattershot banks hard, whipping around a turn that would turn a human pilot to jelly. He continues his harrying fire, and is rewarded with... "ABOMINUS!" The Technobot Commander takes a moment to growl into the Autobot broadband, then transforms and faces... the Constructicons? He folds down into his imposing battlestation mode. "Strafe! Open up on ALL these Decepticreeps!" he orders. "Ain't NO ONE gonna get outta here without a scratch!" That said, the array of small lasers lining his barrel power up with a series of loud VMMMMMs, and then... fire EVERYWHERE. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! YEEEEEHAWWWWW!" Taking a few steps back as Abominus forms from the ugliest Cybertronians ever made into the ugliest Gestalt ever made, Silverbolt just shakes his head. "I hate it when he does that." He jumps backwards towards Slingshot and Fireflight as the forms of Air Raid and Skydive can be seen coming in from the south. "Time to work, Aerialbots." He needlessly takes a step towards Abominus, puffing out his chest for reasons only known to him. "AERIALBOTS!" Just in time, Air Raid and Skydive fly over head and start to loop back towards him. "MERGE TO FORM SUPERION!" Scattershot clanks down into battlestation mode, weapons array lit up and ready for action. Now would be a good time to run. Silverbolt shouts, "Aerialbots, MERGE to form Superion!" With a shudder of metal, the Aerialbots undergo a stunning transformation and combine into the mighty form of Superion! Scattershot unleashes his This is why they call me Scattershot attack on Exo-suit Glaive Unity , Abominus, DepthCharge, Streetwise, Spectrum, Dreadwind, Strafe, Hook, Astrotrain, Astracius, Scavenger, Dead End and Durango, striking Dead End, Hook, Scavenger, DepthCharge, Abominus, Dreadwind, Spectrum, Astrotrain, Durango and Streetwise. Rapidly closing the distance towards the factory, Strafe finally gets a good look at all the Decepticons -- especially the rapidly merging form of Abominus. "O-oh jeez... they're--they're EVERYWHERE!!" Beginning a rapid descent, the Technobot begins to expand, wings folding inward towards robotic arms and torso as he assumes his full, twitching robot mode. "I-I-I'll SLAG 'EM ALL, BOSS!" This is said with the sudden ripple of subspace, two large heat rifles appearing. He's ready. "OH JESUS!!!" Strafe bellows out his war-cry even as he free-falls towards the ground, letting loose a sudden full-force rain of ammunition towards the ground. He squeezes the triggers of his heat rifles liberally, spraying the factory grounds and everyone in it with charged beams of concentrated heat. There's no real target; he's just shooting willy nilly and hoping it hits someone who is Decepticon or, more importantly, the big freaking Abominus. "AAAAAAH DIIIIEEE--" CRASH. "eee." "Awww slag." Comes the only response DepthCharge can think of as he sees in the distance Abominus forming. And here he thought it was going to be a regular assault. Who on Earth brings a Gestalt to a Lasergun fight? The Aquabot quickly checks the location of all Autobots in the area. Does Scattershot have enough of his team here to merge? Doesn't look like it.. But Silverbolt does. That should even things up nicely, if the Aerialbots have time to merge that is. The Aquabot looks down at the hanging Spectrum on a chain and shouts, detaching his Trident from where it is maglocked to his back and speeding through the air towards where Abominus has formed, "Alright Autobot Spectrum. Let's buy the Aerialbots some time. Let's double team Decepticon Abominus." He presses a button on the hilt of the Trident and the prongs of the golden weapon flare into energized activity, "I'll hit him high, you lance him low. Ready? Here we go." Not realizing he just sounded like Wheelie, the Aquabot charges forward with his passenger in tow, twirling his trident as he makes a pass at Abominus. If they can get cause him to de-merge, then the problems here will be a whole lot less quickly. DepthCharge strikes Abominus with Energised Trident. Strafe unleashes its FREAKIN' OUT!!!! attack on Abominus, DepthCharge, Streetwise, Spectrum, Scattershot, Hook, Astrotrain, Dead End, Durango and Scourge, striking Scattershot, DepthCharge, Abominus, Astrotrain and Durango. Superion finishes combining, his head the last thing to show as the titan takes a step closer to Abominus. "ABOMINUS WILL DEMERGE OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES." From Exo-suit Glaive Unity , Michael Briar drops down out of the sky on four wings unfolded behind him. The Unity dips and pulls up a bit to take in the situation, then dives down towards the cons. Michael grabs the black and white rail rifle attached to his hip and rests it in both arms. Since he was above Scattershot's or Strafe's massive sprays of fire, he's safe for now. He looks over the situation as several beams fire up at relatively his position. He calls out, "Damn it, I show up and get fired on by the autobots?! Are they 'that' nearsighted they don't know who's a con or bot?" Spectrum watches as well, and shakes his head as Abominus slowly rises up from the ground. "Hmmm, this could prove most bothersome." He then says to himself, and looks up towards the Aquabot. "Heard and understood Depthcharge!" He yells up, hoping his voice can be heard as he dangles below. His chain goes taught, as Depth speeds up to attacking speed. The game-bot steeling himself as they approach the gigantic enemy. Spinning his lance in hand, Spectrum narrows his orange optics and just leans his weapon arm back. Once Depthcharge strikes, Spectrum logically pinpoints that spot. "Lets see if you can survive the spot being targetted by not one...but two of us!" He lets loose a battlecry and like that, swings his lance right at the already attacked spot. His energon lance crackles to life, and the blade ignites in cyan energon goodness. Spectrum strikes Abominus with meet the end of my pointy stick!. Scavenger growls and his knees buckle as he takes a piece of Scattershot's fire, the drop-down in their path and battlestation transformation is a good ploy, yes. He clusters close with the other Constructicons as the glowing hot Protectobot caused injury slowly cools, clutching a hand over it. "Hook, you hit?" Dead End remains where he is as Strafe begins blazing away at the landscape in general, none of the rounds actually hitting him but managing to do a fair amount of damage to the roof and walls of the building he's parked beside along with the pavement in front of him. While this light shot is creating numerous shiny dots on his radar screen he picks up a very familiar vehicular shape on his screen: Streetwise. He guns his engine and, peeling out from behind the building, cuts around and heads for the Protectobot as his headlights flare before sending pulses of energy toward Streetwise as he makes a beeline toward him Dead End strikes Streetwise with Unexplained Special Effects Attack!. Hook is struck in the back by a barrage from Scattershot, and raises a sheet of steel to block the following attack from Strafe. Hook drops the sheet of metal onto the pile that he was harvesting, and turns to his fellow Constructicons. "They're not going to stand by while we steal the steel. If they want to play rough, let's show them how it'd done. Constructicons, form phase 1!" He shouts, and folds down into his crane mode. The others follow suite, and move into their positions. "Good. Form Phase 2!" Scrapper and Mixmaster raise up to form legs, and are joined by Long Haul as the hips. Hook, the crane, rises up into the air and folds in half, forming the chest of the merging titan. Scavenger and Bonecrusher attach to form arms, and are joined by the massive metal fists of Devastator. The grey head rises up from Hook's folded body. A grin spreads across Devastator's face as he and his component minds anticipate the destruction that is sure to ensue. Raising his two giant arms into the air, Devastator smashes his way out of the facility, out into the open, and advances on the Autobots. Hook shouts, "Constructicons, MERGE to form Devastator!" With a shudder of metal, the Constructicons undergo a stunning transformation and combine into the mighty form of Devastator! Astrotrain suddenly finds himself under a spray of fire from various directions, forcing him to hunker down and raise his arms to shield himself. "Waaaaugh!" Not that it does much good when it's so random. Hitting Bots and Cons alike. "...fraggin Technobots! Least even the Terrocons know who to shoot!" A pause. "...usually." He grunts and loads his rifle with a fresh energy clip, moving up alongside one of the storage buildings and using it for some cover as he peers around the corner. His right arm leads with his rifle, and he draws a bead on none other than one of the Technobots...Strafe. Let Abominus and Devastator deal with Superion! He'll happily pick off lesser targets. "Slag em all!" Astrotrain misses Strafe with his Pewpewpew! attack. F-16 Falcon picks up the arriving and engaging Autobots and then sees the massive looming form of Abominus and Devastator, "Oh great, as if it wasn't bad enough that the Autobots are here already now we have deranged engines of destruction blindly flailing around they'll end up destroying us and what we came for." Most would question just how someone manages to strike them with their speed, skill or whatever but not Dreadwind. As Scattershot's attack burns into his wing he merely contemplates at how the hole will allow more insidious things inside like water and dust and spores all the things that can clog and corrupt your internal workings. "The suffering has increased again, it will not be the last time, before the end." With that he wingovers and launches a single missile at the jittery little technobot. Dreadwind misses Strafe with his Missile attack. Abominus roars, slimy drool pouring out of his mouth as the Autobots begin their attack upon him. Scattershot's indiscriminate fire does little to him, however. More effective is Depthcharge and Spectrum's combined attack--but even that doesn't seem to phase him. Bringing his arms back, the gestalt screams, "ABOMINUUUUUUUUUSSSSSS!!!!" as he slams his fists into the ground, shattering it. Shards of concrete fly everywhere and the earth shakes from the raw force of it! Abominus unleashes his ABOMINUSFALLDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWN! attack on DepthCharge, Streetwise, Spectrum, Strafe, Scattershot, Superion and Exo-suit Glaive Unity , striking Scattershot, Superion and Spectrum. Exo-Suit Glaive Unity rolls hard to the left avoiding a stray shot which fires up wildly. Michael says, "Ok Unity, let's do this." The Unity turns and shoots upward with wings out wide staying clear of Abominus since he's up in the air and rolls one more time to bleed off some speed from the quick acceleration. The beam cannons split and fold forward under and over the shoulders while the ion cannons mounted in the hips swings up locking into place. Michael's face reflects the blips of red on his HUD as he locks onto several decepticons below. Once he gets as many targets as he can, each weapon begins to glow with a white yellowish energy for a second. Suddenly all the energy cannons fire with a deafening roar of two red ion cannon beams and four beam cannons sending out a torrent of white destructive heat and concussion force. Each beam seeking out a decepticon for its very own to strike at. Exo-suit Glaive Unity unleashes its Tsunami Strike attack on Abominus, Devastator, Astrotrain and Dead End, striking Dead End, Devastator, Abominus and Astrotrain. Streetwise, he saw that coming. Saw it in the fashion that he wasn't suprised by the sudden hail of ballistics that took to the air to seek out not only foe, but unintentionally any friend who happen to be in the area. Such an attack wasn't the kind to be especially discerning, and with his attentions focused on finding the rest of the Constructions, and carefully seeing away some lagging humans...the suprise at the unexpected pain made him stumble. His heated words blitzed across the channel, using the injury as a lesson to keep a closer eye on the Technobots. It was the only thing that saved him from being nailed by Strafe-- and into Dead End. That Stunticon really knew when to ignore not being around. Optics behind his visor widened at the dark car that screeched around the bend, lights flashing up, along with its charges. He rocked back, falling to a knee and bracing his hand on the ground to keep from kissing asphalt. "Dead End, don't tell me more of your wanna be 'bots are hiding out there too?" He sure hoped not, unlike the Aerialbots, there was only one. His chest plate was now thoroughly dented and scored with black. He took a few shots on the oncoming Decepticon, and rolled out of the way. He had just enough time to adjust to the shaking earth and projectiles from Abominus' hissy fit. Perhaps even setting up Dead End for Michael. Streetwise misses Dead End with his Photon Pistol < low level > attack. Spectrum winces almost instantly as Abominus roars his fury into the air. That, and then their is that gigantic chunk of concrete that is just randomly flying by. Even the aquabot can possibly feel the force, as Spectrum's side is struck by a flying chunk of debris. "AAAHH!!!! IM HIT!" He calls out in pain, his entire side panel literaly ripped from his form. His clutches at the damaged area, and shuts off his optics. "Depthcharge, we need to keep it up. Atleast until we can get more on that thing." Spinning his lance around, he mag-locks it to his back, and materializes his laser-rifle. Using his weight to spin himself around, Spectrum takes aim at Abominus. "Eat this!" He yells and lets loose a few volley shots at the gestalt. Though he winces, and probably pulls his shots too far to the right. Spectrum strikes Abominus with salvo shot.. "Phew... that was k-k-kinda scary..." Strafe mutters as he drags himself up from his impact point on the factory grounds, churned of concrete falling off him as he gives a slow look around. "D-did I get 'em? Guys? Why is no one responding? Is something wr-wrong--OH SWEET PRANCING PRIMUS!!" Shrieking out hysterically in a nervous, jittering -jerk- to the side, his body twisting inelegantly but effectively out of the way of Astrotrain's rifle fire. "They're STILL everywhere!! And -- and -- JEEZ!" The missile screeches through the air and, in a more effective moment of Strafe's life, he points his guns and opens fire, unleashing a deadly torrent of heat rays with shoot down the missile mid-flight in a deafening explosion of impact. "O-okay, Decepticon trash, I'm gonna take you ALL DOWN!" His arm sweeps out in a wide arc, randomly shooting out high-powered beams of heat that strike neither Astrotrain or Dreadwind -- or anyone, for that matter. Instead, he just seems to be firing off randomly at the moment, only managing to get an aim on the one Decepticon in particular: Abominus. "DIIIIEEEEEEE!!" Weapon fire scatters through the area near Abominus as DepthCharge and Spectrum make their two pronged attack on the gestalt. Weapon fire from the Technobots. Weapon fire that also catches DepthCharge in it's wide spread wake. A few blasts catch the Aquabot in the back, DepthCharge shouting a few choice comments over the Autobot broadband and ascending higher into the air. To avoid both further Technobot attack and any retaliation from Abominus. But as DepthCharge climbs, he sees the Constructicons undergoing their own scary transformation. The one that heralds the arrival of Devestator. Things are getting more dangerous the longer they stay here. Two gestalts against one isn't going to work. So alas once again, DepthCharge concludes he's got to strike Abominus again. "Autobot Spectrum, this is going to be dangerous. Let go if you wish, else attack Decepticon Abominus when we are in range. Alright?" Blue energy begins to flow over DepthCharge's armor, ionizing it as his forcefield systems come on line. Pulling up further into the air, the glowing forcefielded Aquabot performs a loop and then begins to hurtle down out of the air again towards Abominus, extending his fists out. Pushing at terminal velocity, DepthCharge directs as much power as possible to his forcefield systems, the glowing blue streak attempting to literally ram himself into Abominus. Late...late, late, late. But better late than never, right? Afterburner tears along the road towards the site, already mad as hell. Why? Because he's Afterburner, that's why. And there's a cloud out today, or perhaps someone coughed in his general direction. Or Both. Decepticons, be very afraid, if it was both. DepthCharge strikes Abominus with ram. The gestalt mind is a conglomeration of it's component parts. Air Raid's fearlessness, Fireflight's curisoity, Slingshot's ego, Skydive's skill and Silverbolt's diplomacy. The working of the Gestalt mind are complex, but it comes down to this: For every decision, every reaction and every action the five minds must either agree, or one must bubble up to the surface stronger than the others. This is done with much greater ease in the later models of gestalt technology, but for the first or second line, it's a battle of wills just to take a step. That is, of course, unless the step is an attempt to keep the balance of the form. Then it is simply 'gut instinct' or a collective unconscious decision. Which is the cause of Superion's step backwards to keep from toppling over from the shaking ground. Every word, every sentence is a piece of the component minds and what they would say, all the voices combining into the chorus that is Superion's baritone intonations. "MAKE ABOMINUS FALL" the giant lets out as if giving himself orders. For sometimes, in the battle for control, only the spoken words will snap the collective into action. They decide. They act. Dropping into a crouch for the instant it takes to get traction and overcome inertia, Superion lunges forward. The parts that would normally be thrusters and afterburners now work as the giant's own propulsion system as he lights the fires and takes to a low flight, fists out in front of him as he takes aim at Abominus. Superion strikes Abominus with Flying Man Tackle. "DAMMIT! Where ARE those guys?!" Scattershot growls, powering down his laser array after his opening assault. "Strafe! Git over here! We're gonna merge just as soon as those lackwit bucketheads arrive!" He roars again, firing random blasts in the general direction of Devastator and Abominus. He looks about ready to give up and start firing his Bug Gun... but then Afterburner finally shows up. "AFTERBURNER!" he howls. "I am gonna THROW YOU inta th'SUN, boy! When I call 'Abominus' you drop EVERYTHIN'! NOW LET'S DO IT!" Transforming into his Combiner Torso mode, Scattershot makes that horrifying call: "MERGE TA FORM GIANT NERD!!" Scattershot shouts, "Technobots, MERGE to form Computron!" With a shudder of metal, the Technobots undergo a stunning transformation and combine into the mighty form of Computron! High above the battle, the sound of the big Osprey femme's propellers as she lowers slowly into the area where the fight is pretty visible. She observes everything from high above, not dropping low enough just yet to really draw attention to herself. She'll have to transform to land, she concludes, and turns to one side in the air, looking for a place on the outskirts of the battle before she even /considers/ landing. Finally, she finds a spot she likes and moves toward it, ready to do whatever she can to help out with the effort. Hopefully... that'll just involve tending the wounded. The engineer femme doesn't have enough firepower to help in the combat. Whirligig's nose slips down from its slot as her head slips up, arms unfolding to the sides. The entire back end of the VTOL aircraft folds down to form her back and sides, the tail flipping back into an almost animal-like "tail" position, sides slipping down to form long, heavy legs. A small mask of sorts slips over her chin and nose and, with a shake of her head and a useless whirl of propellers, the femme grins, settling into robot mode completely. In orbit, a strange craft hovers, waiting for the Earth to turn just so -- calculating the right moment to strike. And then, when it comes, he dives downward, initiating a freefall through the atmosphere, flame licking at the airskiff's armored hull, puncturing the skies like a dagger hurled by God. Scourge declines any boastful comments as he steers downward and downward still, achieving a tremendous speed as his thrusters kick in, pushing him to fly faster than gravity can push -- straight down toward the coordinates of the battle. Pity whoever's in his sights -- will they survive being /rammed from orbit/ by /Scourge, the tracker/?! Scourge misses Exo-suit Glaive Unity with his FEAR FALL attack. Dead End manages to avoid Streetwise's shot with the help of Michael's shot which causes him to skid to the side and to scrape for a few seconds against the side of a nearby building before recovering. Several inches of his maroon paint have been scraped off as he straightens out and comes to a halt some feet in front of Streetwise before he transforms. Dead End's weapon is already held in his right hand as he raises it and levels it at Streetwise. "Look upward if you want the answer to that...it is no concern of mine." He then pulls the trigger. Dead End misses Streetwise with his Cutting edge HuffPuff tech attack. Abominus is many things. Huge. Purple. Strong. But above all, he is rage. Not the sort of rage a toddler has when it loses its toys, or a man has at the traffic lights. No, this is a kind of rage that will not be quelled, the sort of rage when a lion is trapped in an enclosure, starved, gawked at by tourists and then teased by a man dressed as a chicken. This is the sort of rage that would cause the lion to leap out of the pit, eat the mans head, and then look about for more. Because above all else, Abominus is a /beast./ And thus it is that Superion takes on the role of the man in the chicken suit, as the huge gestalt rushes him, Abominus staggering back, trying to steady himself as he crashes back into a pile of rubble. He barely understands what is happening. He barely understands who Superion is or what he is saying. All he understands is the /rage/ "NNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOMMMMMMMIIIIIINNNNNUUUUUSSSSSSS!" the mighty behemoth screams, lurching forwards on slime-encrusted legs, hands grasping at Superion, determined to throttle the very spark of life from his mighty body. Abominus strikes Superion with How the Gods Kill. Astrotrain watches as the technobots rise up in their own merging. Soon leaving not one, not two, but -four- gestalts stomping around as they flatten everything in their paths. "Ever get that teeny tiny feeling?" He asks no one in particular, deciding to take to the air and get some distance so he can decide what he should be doing next. "...wasn't the Terrorcons -grabbin- something? Ah slaggit." He simply points his rifle down and fires a few shots at random, not hitting anything or anyone of note. Devastator stomps the yard with every simple step and declares, "AUTOBOT INTERFERANCE WILL BE EXTINGUISHED." The green titan finds Computron rising up in his path. He raises an eclipsing fist and points at Computron. He issues one more thing to say before taking action. "YOU." His upper body haunches forward, and with a thunderous rumbling growl, Devastator plows forward at Computron and move his arm out gunning to clothesline tackle. Devastator strikes Computron, but the shot doesn't seem to phase him from his calculations. F-16 Falcon is almost surprised that he has been almost ignored, that is until the dreadful creeping truth dawns on him. ooO(The Autobots are just biding their time, waiting until i get complacent and then they're all going to blast me at once sending me crashing to the earth, a flaming pile of broken and twisted metal unable to even cry out from the agonising pain as my circuits fizzle and pop.)Ooo Dreadwind calls out, "It's no use Autobots, give it up, i know what you're up to, i see through your plan. You will not end my suffering now, i will be forced to endure while you, you will be allowed to slip away and go onto greater pain." Seeing as Strafe has now joined with his teammates Dreadwind leaves him to the Constructicons this time lining up Depthcharge for a strafing run. Dreadwind misses DepthCharge with their Laser attack. Yay! Exo-Suit Glaive Unity bleeps a warning to Michael as Scourge descends to him. "Ech?" as he looks up, "SHIT!" and hits his engines to take off like a shot. The Unity blasts off avoiding the fear falling kick but quickly angles back around. "You! THIS IS FOR ZOE!" he screams while firing off a few rail cannon blasts at Scourge while closing in on him again. As we all know, Scourge was the one who blew up Zoe and his apartment, forcing Michael to duel him to get his wife back. Thankfully, Sky Lynx interfered stopping the match short of turning Michael into street pizza. Nah, Michael doesn't carry grudges. Exo-suit Glaive Unity misses Spacefaring Gravy Boat with its RCR-104 'Hunter' Rifle attack. Spectrum is dragged along by the chain, as Depthcharge just barrels his way towards Abominus. His body just flies quickly behind him, and he watches as Abominus just doesn't seem to be registering any of the damage thrown at him. Well, if you can't hurt him...CONFUSE HIM! "Depthcharge, Im dropping off!" He yells, as the wind rushes past his form. Though, it seems that the Autobot has picked up an extra companion. Regardless, Spectrum ejects the chain from his right wrist, and aims to fall right on Abominus' shoulder. Though he doesn't land on it in normal robot mode, oh no, he has a much more dreadful idea. He transforms and lands into a little nook on the gestalts shoulder strut. His screen begins to light up, and his hologram core kicks in. "Lets see if you like to meet with more than one of your nemesis." He states, and like that he begins weaving a Computron hologram infront of the raging Abominus. "COMPUTRON: ONLINE," comes the rumbling voice, rolling across the battlefield in all its monotonous glory. The impassive giant surveys the battlefield, taking in the three other combiners, the smaller Transformers, and the factory. "DATUM: ABOMINUS. DATUM: DEVASTATOR. DATUM: SUPERION. DATUM: COMPUTRON. ANALYZING." The lights scroll over his chest, blinking as they go. Several moments later, they light in unison and then fade. "ANALYSIS COMPLETE. THIS UNIT WILL ENGAGE DEVASTATOR." Computron takes a step forward, then another, and then... you got it. Another. "ODDS OF VICTORY AGAINST DEVASTATOR: 77.444 PER CENT. ODDS ACCEPTABLE." He pulls back one arm, which happens to be Afterburner, and then... gets punched in the face by Devastator. Stumbling backwards, Computron looks nonplussed for a moment. "DATUM: DEVASTATOR IS FASTER THAN COMPUTRON." Lights flash. "CONCLUSION: COMPUTRON MUST KICK IT UP A NOTCH." Computron pistons his Afterburnerfist forwards towards Devastator's robotic chest and says, impassive as ever, "BAM." Computron strikes Devastator with Thunder Punch. DepthCharge is sent flying back at the impact from his collision with Abominus. But thankfully his forcefield systems absorbed the majority of the blast. With the Aquabot slowly ascending again, giving his systems time enough to realign themselves, but the calm is short lived as another aerial Decepticon appears before him. Weapon fire strafes at DepthCharge but the scientist moves quickly, raising his hands and projecting a blue forcefield in front of him. The blasts impact against the shield, energy crackling as they do so. But DepthCharge is left untouched. Frowning at the Falcon, the Aquabot pushes more energy at his forcefield generators and suddenly the energy shield in front of him pulses out and blasts towards Dreadwind. Almost akin to throwing a brick wall at your enemy. Balance...both a blessing and a danger, now instead of two, then three, there were four merged gestalts tromping around a fairly enclosed area considering their size...and several smaller pieces still about. The thought of all the damage threatened a headache of a proportion that would dwarf First Aid's when he learned the aftermath of this entire bout. He had to remember to get repaired by someone else on that note. Streetwise put aside a portion of his attention to keep track of where each was, the rumbling of the ground a fair enough guestimation of where their big feet were setting down at. "Upward?" He echoed as if Dead End were stupid, "Whatever, it doesn't matter. If you're out of the picture the number will remain four I wager." Can't merge with one less Stunticon! He dove in towards Dead End, lashing out with a fist to the chest with his shoulder behind it, prepared to shove the other back and into a nearby hanger. Streetwise strikes Dead End with punch. MiG-25 "Foxbat" streaks down out of the sky, swings around Astrotrain once and transforms in midair to hover nearby with a dull roar of jet engines. "Hey, how's it going?" Blitzwing asks his compatriot. "Who're we shooting so far?" DepthCharge strikes F-16 Falcon with Forcefield Pulse. Computron rises up beside his real counterpart. "Computron: Functional." He bellows out, and turns towards Abominus. "Odds of twin Computron victory: 91.9999 per cent." He then pulls free his cannon, and aims it for the Terrorcon beast known as Abominus and fires. Yet all the while, the PSP fires a simple disruptor attack. Not enough to hurt the titan, but enough to make him think that there are two Computrons. Spectrum strikes Abominus with disruptor. As four of the five minds come to focus on Abominus, the fifth seems to be off in his own world. But as the hands of his opponent tighten around his neck, the fifth comes back. Taking a cue from the second mind, all the fear of the collective subsides and the focus returns. The third mind recalls a maneuver it saw on a movie while the fourth thinks that it could do it much better than the movie. The first mind agrees. There is a consensus. The giant moves. Superion moves one hand to grab an attacking arm as the other is moved toward the torso. There is a quick stop to grap a formerly hidden weapon as the legs begin to push up. There is no speech. Only action. The beheamouth's weapon does the talking as he pulls it's trigger. Superion strikes Abominus with Shotgun to the gut. Still trying to stay mostly out of the way, Whirligig lands heavily just a bit away from the main action. She plans on hanging back, only coming in when someone needs help or repair. Her wings tip up and her propellers spin. She's actually worried... this is a pretty nasty fight. But at least everyone's too busy focusing on stuff they can beat up on that'll attack them back than a medtech hanging near the back of the main action. This situation, she realizes quickly, could escalate out of control very fast. And that makes her worry. She gazes around, trying to get a fix on where everyone is, optics bright. Somewhere in the back of her rapidly computing processor, she starts to think it may've been a bad idea for her to come here, but... well, no changing her mind now. She's here! A very old Wolf Blitzer can be seen life on CNNSIMSNBCDISNEYGMOMGWTFBBQ, Channel 22, amidst a scene of chaos and mayhem. "Wolf Bliz (cough)er here, at the Devicias del Plotos assembly plant in Bra(cough)zil, where there seem to b(cough)e thre..no, four Transformer Ges(cough)talts formed and doi(cough)ng battle...I've bee(cough)n wat(cough)chin(Cough, cough, cough)." He disappears off screen. Coughing. Beat. Image of Computron getting pwned by Devastator. More coughing.Then, Wolf, from offscreen, "Is that my lung? Oh my.." Sound cuts out. Dead End is punched, yes, and it's a punch indeed as it collides with the center of his chest but otherwise does little damage besides creating a dent matching Streetwise's knuckles in his chest armor. He keeps looking straight ahead as his right arm swings up, his arm extended, as he attemps to knock Streetwise up the head with the barrel of his pistol. Astrotrain grunts. "Slagged if I know." He mutters, right now indeed staying airborne and OUT OF REACH of those gestalts flailing around. He has his rifle in one hand, but isn't shooting at anything right now. Content to just watch and revel in the carnage. Besides, maybe he'll fnd something/someone he can pick off afterwards. "I was just kinda gettin caught up in the whole thing, y'know? When random shots weren't flyin all over the place." Blitzwing points and laughs at Streetwise. "Haw haw!" As Briar yells and shoots and stuff, Scourge looks as blase as a flying airskiff possibly can, correcting his course and sharply veering upward to avoid pasting himself into the face of the Earth. Barrel-rolling out of the way of the rifle blast, he drolly announces, turret rising to expose a bearded face, "If that is the best you can do in avenging your ilk, human, then your species deserves its inferior status." As he speaks, his disintegrator cannon charges and fires off a short but brilliantly colored burst of energy at the man in the robot fursuit. Scourge strikes Exo-suit Glaive Unity with Electrocannon. F-16 Falcon misses, not that for a moment Dreadwind thought that his weapon fire was actually going to cause any damage to the Autobot. More than likely an unnoticed glitch in his guidance and targeting systems that the medics failed to repair last time he was injured. The wall of force strikes Dreadwind his nosecone buckling and twisting horribly and some metal sheering from the leading edge of his wings, "Ungggh, great now i have even more ways for the rain and dirt to get inside, i probably can't even transform anymore." Trying to stay way away from the gestalt fights he opens fire once more on Depthcharge. Dreadwind misses DepthCharge with their Rapid-fire machine gun attack. Yay! Devastator buckles forward as the fist pummels into his chest, pushing him back as his arms jerk forward with the deep clattering sound of freight train cars coming to a halt. Impact like a horrible car wreck. But these giants use car crashing force to open lemonade stands and go door to door singing carols. He straightens up almost immediately, formulating ideas for the strongest one that sways the rest in its favor. "PUNT." He leans back balancing as a leg rises and drives straight out at Computron. It's not quite Bruce Lee... but hey, if it can topple a skyscrapper I don't think The Master would critisize lack of proper technique. "Okay, well, I'm just gonna hang out overhead and see if anybody needs bombing, lemme know if you want help," says Blitzwing, flying away again. Devastator strikes Computron, but the shot doesn't seem to phase him from his calculations. "NNNYYYUURRRGGGHHH!!! RRRAAAGGHHHH!!!" The brutish gestalt throttled one of his many opponents this day on the battlefield. BUt that is not enough. No one learns. They all want to be destroyed! But.. one of them seems to be more resilient atm. Breaking loose from the choke hold, the fleet flying gestalt shoots Abominus in the abdomen. The purple titan of power is shot backwards inot an abandoned storage building. Getting up the immense gruesome gestlat grools and drools some more all over himself. As he's roaring in defiance to his enemies, to the ages of anguish and rage.. he feels what seems like a nat brush by his shoulder. And then suddenly another Computron is right there before his optics! Even more rage surfaces to the top at this trickery of illusions. He raises his arms to the skies and roars a booming, terror filled cry of anguish! As he brings his arms down he still feels like something is on his shoulder, but he can't see anything. So.. with the ape-like arm that he has, he attempts to scratch his shoulder like the monkey he is. Abominus strikes Sony PSP with Scratch That Itch!. Sony PSP falls to the ground unconscious. From Exo-suit Glaive Unity , Michael Briar says, "Oh my god, you killed Spectrum!" Blast Off swings low like a sweet brown chariot, planning to unfairly and sneakily vulture some poor injured Autobot with his heavy artillery before they can return fire. That's just how he rolls. As Dreadwind lines up to fire at DepthCharge again, the Aquabot concentrates and fades away into nothingness as the machine gun fires. The bullets hit thin air, the Autobot scientist seeming to have just vanished. Anyone with radar might detect a cloaked DepthCharge performing a loop-de-loop, bringing himself around and behind the Falcon. DepthCharge comes back into view as he drops the cloak, the newly freed up power being redirected to DepthCharge's weapon systems. His right hand crackling with electricity running around his palm, a sphere of ball lightning form within DepthCharge's hand. Frowning in concentration and calculating Dreadwind's current direction, DepthCharge swings his arm back and hurls the sphere of ball lightning at Dreadwind's aft section. DepthCharge strikes F-16 Falcon with Sphere lightning. Exo-Suit Glaive Unity brings up a hand letting the disintegrator cannon disintegrate his shield sapping the power and effectively shutting it down with one hit. Michael's Unity is pushed back by the blunt force of the beam however and as the shield shatters he goes spinning end over end. The Unity does this for a few flips but quickly rights itself with Michael about to hurl on his screen and show the world the tacos he had for lunch. The Unity tilts back before shooting forward putting on the speed before he goes flying back Scourge slicing out with a pair of glowing energy blades that appear around his hands. At least he has enough power to do that. Exo-suit Glaive Unity strikes Spacefaring Gravy Boat with energy shield blades. Sony PSP for a moment Spectrum literally begins to wonder if he got the brute's attention. That is, before Abominus roars into the sky as he notices his notComputron. "Hah, it's working!" He says, thinking he had the edge. Though it's all in vain...as Spectrum sees....A FINGER!!!" "Slag!!" He says, and tries to transform and leap away. Yet...it's all in utter loss...as The finger crushes his body. "AAAAHHHH!!!!" He cries out in pain, even his radio picking up his pain. His body begins to transform....but as he does, pieces of him fall to the ground. Literally, it's like the game-bot had been drawn and quartered. His arms and legs literally ripping free of his body, as he becomes robot mode. He's essentially now five pieces of a robot. Alot more, if your not including EVERY part that is rend from his form. The clang was quite audible, and Streetwise was stunned for an entire second before it all settled in what the other'd done. Quite naturally at that, he'd charged in close afterall, but if the Protectobot'd been human, his cheeks would be flushed red. Suprise, anger, embarrassment...It didn't really hurt, though his paint was scratched. Silver beneath the white. "Is that all?" He snapped, so intent on his own little scuffle that he almost missed the appearance of another Computron, and then ofcourse there was the broadband...Things were really going well. "I guess I really don't have time to play with you Dead End," Whirligig might need some cover though uh, Computron could do it better. None the less, this close he brought his gun up, and fired again-- trying to take down Dead End long enough so he could get some space to transform, and speed out... Astrotrain mutters to Blitzwing. "What a Grumpy Gus." Streetwise misses Dead End with his Photon Pistol < high level > attack. Scrap. Scrap, scrap, /scrap/! Well, she's gonna have to do /something/. Immediately, Whirligig takes off into the heat of things, dodging around, trying to keep from being trampled, kicked, stepped on, or anything worse. This is going to be bad and she knows it. Her optics are bright and alert... finally, she kicks on her jetpack, propellers spinning rapidly up to speed as she moves forward. She knows she's going to draw attention now, but... she /has/ to get to Spectrum and start putting the poor bot back together! Quickly changing his form, Broadside becomes an F/A-18 Hornet. Superion stands still a moment, watching Abominus and the two Computrons and trying to process exactly what's going on. As the second Computron flickers out, he apparently finally figures it out. "SUPERION WILL COVER WHIRLIGIG," the massive Autobot announces as he rushes the disgusting Decepticon gestalt. Superion strikes Abominus with Hard right hand. Computron winces, slightly, as the ginormous leg makes impact with his ginormous torso, sending him a ginormous amount of feet backwards...but he still stands! And now, he had a new objective..cover Whirligig..which, at this point, seeing as how Devastator was in the way, meant... well... This. Fist rearing back in the aftermath of his vicious assault, Computron seems to pause in mid-motion rather than press an offensive. "DATUM: AUTOBOTS. DATUM: DECEPTICONS. DATUM: CYBERTRON CIVIL WAR. ANALYZING." Lights flash in a vibrant scrawl over his chest once more, far longer than before. Long enough, in fact for Devestator to get up, think of a plan, and put it into effect. Computron is still computing as that leg stamps into his midsection, bringing the combiner into a rough backwards stumble that shakes the ground with every step. "ANALYSIS ABORTED, DATA DISTRACTING FROM CURRENT TASK. CONCLUSION: DISREGARD DATA REQUESTS FROM AUTOBOT QUICKSWITCH DURING COMBAT." Recovering himself, Computron drags closer to Devestator, analyzing the massive combiner. "DATUM: DEVESTATOR'S PUNT MANEUVER EFFECTIVE. COUNTERMEASURE INITIATING... NOW." If Bruce Lee is the name of the game, Computron follows up quite well, closing the distance between himself and Devestator. "DOWNLOADING. DOWNLOAD COMPLETE. INITIATING: ONE-INCH PUNCH." Once more his fist pistons out, but at extremely close range, bringing incredible force behind the blow with intent to knock Devestator in the abdomen and force him backwards with crushing strength. "RESPONSE: HII-YAH." Computron strikes Devastator with Jumbo Jet Butcher Knife. Hoist the green and orange tow truck finally rolls onto the scene, for what good he can do against Combiners. He skillfully swerves through debris and heads for DepthCharge, hoping to help add to his firepower. The sky goes dark... really frackin dark. Something just covered the moon, something big. Or at least it looks like that for a moment, till little rays of moonlight start streaming down, but they are moving. Why? Well anyone looking up will see that it isn't a single shape blocking the moon. No, it's sodding loads of them. Some tiny, some medium... and one real big one, a bonifide, 100% honest to Primus, Quintesson command shuttle. The Pravus just decloaked, with all of its sharkticons flying courtesy of some adjusted drones. There's a saying about things hitting the fan... right now things just broke smashed and trampeeded over the fan, and then took a leak on it for good measure. And now there's drones, Sharkticons and Gatorcons coming at the assembled Transformers, the command ship hovers high above, moving slowly and ominously. Blast Off turns his argon-doped X-ray laser on the oncoming Sharkticons, backpedaling as fast as he can while carefully drilling them through the forehead, one after another. F-16 Falcon watches as his shots apparently disintergrate the Autobot, Dreadwind however knows that he could never get that lucky and even though he has no idea where the Autobot has gone he knows that he's going to be suffering even more, As if on cue no sooner the thought is cemented in his mind Depthcharge reappears and blasts him, crackling energy corruscates across his form entering through fractures in his battered body and frying circuits, smoke pours from his open wounds. "Why do you bother Autobot? Don't you know it's pointless, the struggle to fight, to go on, we're all going to be obliterated soon enough." Well, what do you know, Dreadwind was right he just didn't realise soon meant astroseconds from now. Receiving his orders Dreadwind speeds up ignoring his old target and locks his weaponry on the Quintessons, "Typical even more that don't realise the pointlessness of it all." Dead End may have missed the arrival of Computron but he doesn't miss the sky darkening, the shuttle arriving, or the hordes of Sharkticons and Gatorcons flowing toward him and Streetwise in a sea of dark metal. He turns away from Streetwise, not bothering to look at him, before he transforms and roars toward them at a rapid acceleration. Dead End collides with them with the sound of smashing metal rising admist the sound of the stomping feet and snapping jaws of the metallic beasts as Dead End scatters them to either side of him as he barrels down the rows. As the Quintesson ship decloaks overhead, Scourge jerks to one side in his flight path, Briar's energo-blades stuck in him and the tracker naturally wanting to shake the armored human off. "Destroy them!" he bellows as his headcannon charges, unable to resist a parting shot to try and take Briar out of commission -- or at least blast him right into the path of those swarming Sharkticons! "Let the Autobots drown in the Sharkticons -- Decepticons, take to the skies and seize the /ship/!" He rockets upward, even if he is but one small airskiff against a massive vessel. Abominus reels as Superion plows into him. The gestalt grapples with Superion, but is nevertheless pushed into another warehouse, smashing it open like a bursting pumpkin. Although Abominus is knocked onto his back from the charge, he is hardly beaten--with one big slimy hand, he tries to clamp it over Superion's skull and bring it closer to his mouth so that he can bite off one of his antennae. Scourge strikes Exo-suit Glaive Unity with Plasma Cannon. Abominus misses Superion with his Antennae Snack attack. Abominus, however, is distracted as the sky goes dark and is filled with strange flying thingies. His primitive mind can't comprehend why it is happening or even how. "Abominnusss?" he asks of no one in particular. Astrotrain stares all open-mouthed for those few seconds as the Quintesson ship reveals itself. And the horde of Sharkticons and Gatorcons begin to descend. He may not be the most brave of individuals at times, but even he hates the Quintessons as much as the next guy. And a moment later, he's rising up as well. The Autobots below forgotten, now nothing but the huge shuttle above in his mind as he transforms and ignites his thrusters to get some height, his huge shuttle form rising up past the shuttle as he starts to set up for an attack run. "So what the smeg are -they- doin here anyway!?" Astracius says, "So, I was thinking, this little planet you errors keep wrecking. Perhaps I should step in and help out again. Clean up those big nasty looking menaces. Oh... And please avoid getting too close to the chaos former General Briar, the drones will not harm you, but well the Sharkticons tend to be less controllable about avoiding certain snacks." Absolutely Ancient Bill O'Reilly, his withered body shaking as he dutifully performs his show, "Welcome to the *wheeze* Factor. Tonight! Decepticon combiners *hack* attack again. What is the reason for this deadly new trend? We'll talk to Geraldo Rivera at the scene of the attack *cough* and we've agreed to shout at each other until one of us has a heart attack." He pops some medication into his mouth. A lot of medication. Devastator recoils, the thought out technique rattles his internals like a water tower full of jellybeans crashing to the ground and squashing the hoards of fat kids who followed the smell of sugar in the blinding pitch black of a cold and desolate suburban evening. As he collects himself, his collective thoughts begin united, simple directive to counter attack Computron with more force. However the more reasonable fragments pick up on the various communications alerting of Quintesson presense and the rain of Sharkticons and Gatorcons. Devastator's collective minds slowly sway back and forth between revenge and orders. The weather makes his decision for him as he is pelted by a rain of Quintesson toadies. "INTERFERENCE WILL BE QUELLED." He grabs one biting sucker after another, balling them up into a crushed mass. Devastator steps back and HURLS the SharkGatorBall up at the hugest target in the sky. The ship. Exo-Suit Glaive Unity is blasted in the back. With a roar Michael feels the heat against the metal and padding even with all the armor. It peels off like paint from the plasma heat but it's not enough to keep Michael down. He turns, his back smoldering, and points his rail rifle at Scrouge, until he sees the dark shadow of the Quintessons and their horde. Nasty images flash back into his brain of torture and pain. Michael's synthetic eye suddenly flares with ghost pain, even that can't help but remember the terrible wound inflicted to it by Astracius. A cold shiver runs down his back as he pulls on the Unity's engines causing the suit to drift back a bit. He says nothing, even if he could, and he's gone. Michael kicks it into high gear and runs like a constipated weenier dog, assuming it could fly and operate an exo-suit or even go very fast. You know constipation, it'll make you want to go fast. With a look of terror on his face, he has no heart anymore to fight the Quintessons, especally after what they've done. Having radioed off the alert to TAI, DepthCharge forgets completely about the Decepticon he was fighting against and turns his attention completely to the shuttle that has darkened the skies. He's been constantly scanning the SOL system for this thing, and here it is now.. right in front of them all. With no advanced warning at all. Not only does DepthCharge forget completely about the Decepticon he was up against, but he forgets completely about his faction members down below who will have to face the Sharkticons and Gatorcons streaming out. He's only got limited time to act, so there's no use thinking. Activating his invisibility systems again, DepthCharge fades completely from sight. Cloaked. The Aquabot then pushes as much power as he can to his anti-gravs and streams up and up, heading on a direct course for the shuttle while trying to avoid any falling Sharkticons. If the Sharkticons are coming out, there must be exit and entrance points on the shuttle. And DepthCharge is going to try and get in via one of them. Computron walks forward to follow up on his attack, but pauses as everything goes dark. Lights start flashing again. "DATUM: UNEXPECTED ATMOSPHERIC VARIANCE. ANALYSING." Computron begins to analyse this datum, instead of simply looking up. Because that's just how Computron rolls. After a long time, his lights flash in unison. "DATUM ANALYSED. SUGGESTED ACTION: LOOK UP." And, finally, the giant nerd does just that. And pauses, staring at the masses of Quintessons. A long pause, then: "DATUM: QUINTESSON ASSAULT. DATUM: QUINTESSON COMMAND SHUTTLE. ANALYSING." Flash flash flash. "ANALYSIS COMPLETE. CONCLUSION: CEASE BATTLE WITH DEVASTATOR. ENGAGE QUINTESSONS." Computron turns away from the Constructicon Combiner and raises a very large gun towards the Quintesson horde. Then, he simply fires, the gigantic beam aiming to rip a swathe through the oncoming Sharkticons and Drones. "DATUM: COMPUTRON IS UNABLE TO FLY. CONCLUSION: COMPUTRON WILL DEAL WITH ENCROACHING QUINTESSON ARMY." Sony PSP just lays prone on the ground, his entire form having been reduced to nothing put junk salvage right now. Hell, the junkions wouldn't even wanna touch that, there is literally nothing working in his sundered form. His head just leans back, attached still to it's torso. His left arm, ripped from the joint. His left lower arm, torn right out from the elbow. Both his legs have been removed from his hips. His entire body seems lifeless, as nearly all his armor plating is gone. Hoist looks up and just stares at the giant ship looming above them, his expression hard to gauge from under that faceplate of his. After a moment of this, he says (to no one in particular), "Well, then, that solves the immediate Combiner problem, say wot?" before switching both hands to blasters and readying his sensor systems to begin evaluating the rough vitals of both friend and foe around him. Well. That certainly wasn't a typical event. One would think with the last recent sightings this kind of occurance wasn't that far off, but even Streetwise is awed at the sight of the Sharkticon cloud. And the impending kind of doom they rather hailed, their teeth were nasty enough on their own, and these were...aerial? Dead End had already left without much ado, making him wonder if the other had orders of his own...the Stunticon had a an attitude that was so indifferent at times it was a wonder he could be bothered to fight sometimes. Standing and gaping however wouldn't do, not when his rival'd beat him to the punch. "It never gets boring." Compliment or curse, Streetwise leapt foward and folded down into the 'cop car', the large twin-barreled canon already mounted as he sped off. The pair of muzzles trained themselves on the new target, releasing several blasts into the air, aiming to pick off those he couldn't reach personally. Whirligig skids to a (ridiculously clumsy) stop near the bits and pieces of Spectrum littering the ground. She sees the new invaders (which causes a thrill of panic to run through her almost immediately), but her first and /only/ priority right now is to the mech she's taking care of. Carefully, gently, she tries to gather as many pieces as she can before just kneeling by the poor PSP mech. A jury-rig won't fix this, but she'll need to get him ready to move. And as much as it'll leave her prone to the playtoys of the squids, well... she'll have to do what she can here. Otherwise... too much risk. Taking out what tools she has hidden away on that big, bulky frame of hers, she clears a spot and starts to work. Screw using the scanner... there's no need for that kind of thing right now, and she can't get back to the medbay... so right here will /have/ to do. Well, isn't this just great? First the gestalts decide to show up, and now a Quint also complicates things. "Sounded like an old-fashioned brawl until the Quint showed up," Bluestreak, in his Datsun alt-mode, mutters under his breath as he races towards the battle--and since he's driving here from AC instead of flying in a shuttle, it's taking quite a bit of time. This gives him plenty of time to survey the situation, though. He transforms to robot mode, weapons already primed and ready to fire, and sprints the rest of the way as he adds a dose of his scatter-missiles to the horde of Quint-drones. Even so, he makes his way towards Spectrum and Whirligig to stand guard, so to speak, as he fires a second scatter-rocket at any drones that seem to get a bit too close to the two. Superion lifts his massive head. What was that little stinging thing that fell on his arm? Another on his back, and one taking the tip of a head-antenna as the gestalt looks up to see a rain of Quint-minions. "STOP THAT." Lacking an umbrella, Superion takes a more active approach to the weather problem, lifting his electrocannon to the source of it all. ZZZZZZZZAAAAPP! The Sharkticons and Gatorcons, haven't had a good meal in far to long. So they quite happily are trying to chew on anything metal that moves. The drones are happily cheering away in that disturbing high pitch voice declaring "Execute! Execute! Execute!" and making giggling sounds when they hit someone. Though oddly a group are... protecting Michael Briar, though they remain a distance away they ensure nobody (not even Sharkticons and Gatorcons) gets too close to the former general. DC, well he get's to find a nice door way that Sharkticons and Gatorcon paratroopers (yes the idea looks as funny as it sounds) are jumping out of. Much easier to slip in that than try the chutes the drones fly out of, let alone that glowing gun like object on the shuttles underside... Glowing... gun like... Over the radio, shouting gleefully is the Quintesson himself, "HERE COME THE DRUMS! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" *KRACK-THOOM!* A beam to rival even Galvatrons streams out the gun like emplacement, directly for Devastator, it rips right through the ball of Sharkticons being thrown at the shuttle, the result? Time will talle, but the energy from the gun is wierd, green, streams flowing round the central beam. The shuttle turns slowly to bring the gun to bare on Computron... *KRACK-THOOM!* The beam lances out, striking the uber nerd square on. The shuttle again turns slowly, as energy proceeds to crackle round the two already struck gestalts. *KRACK-THOOM!* Abominus is now struck, glowing in the same way. The first target, Devastator is begining to feel the pain that can only come with one ending... *KRACK-THOOM!* Superion, the last of the giants to get hit, is equally smackerooned in the chest. As the gestalts are all wracked with pain that nobody outwith a gestalt could imagine, Scourge is assaulted by the beam, though for him, the effect is mildly different, instead it rips open his outer shell, not so much forcing a transformation but ripping the robot right out of the Sweepcraft. As for the Gestalts... the pain they are in? It's cause the beam is using the same antigrav tech the drone use in tractor beams, but on a scale never seen till now. They... just got demerged with authority. Superion separates into the individual Aerialbots. Computron separates into the individual Technobots. Devastator watches as the SharkGatorBall flies upwards towards the ship, eager to see what sort of destruction is laid upon the Pravus. As he watches, in awe of his own strength, the Constructicon Combiner is vaguely aware of Computron boasting something about being able to deal with the deploying Quintesson army. The resulting booming laughter from Cybertron's first Gestalt speaks volumes as to his opinion of Computron's efforts. "BIG TALK FROM A WEAK ROBOT." Devastator bellows at his Technobot counterpart. In the high school that is Gestalt clique, Computron is the one who gets shoved into lockers in a daily basis as far as Devastator is concerned. Sharkticons continue to bounce off the heavy green armour, but Devastator hardly seems to notice. This lack of attention continues as some of the more intrepid Sharkticons manage to dig their teeth and claws into him on the way down, clinging to the monster like bloodsucking mosquitos. They'll do damage soon enough if they have enough time before the Constructicons notice them. Looking back up, Devastator is shocked to see a bright beam slash through the thrown ball. He shifts in his position as if to get a better look, but whatever actions he was going to take after this come to a screeching halt as the beam slams into him from above. Devastator's head rips open from the blast, and his roar is lost to the damage. Electrical arcs from the impact crackles over the massive green form. Devastator stands, stunned as he feels consciousness slipping away from him. His left arm, Bonecrusher, has fallen off. Hook and Long Haul are splitting up, and soon the rest of the Constructicon pieces fall, one by one in a heap of pain and anguish. Devastator separates into the individual Constructicons. Blast Off, flitting across the firing line while pecking away at the shuttle with his artillery laser, is wracked and assailed by one of the beams in passing! What effect it will have on him... who can say? The blast, quite literally, shreds Scourge. His armor is peeled away like it were wrapping paper, exposing him down to his innermost mechanisms, compacted and contorted into the interior of his airskiff form -- essentially, he is reduced to a block of flying robot guts, and when the blast causes his exposed fueling system to /explode/, he becomes a plummeting, flaming block of robot guts, smashing into the landscape some distance away -- from the grand display, it looks like something that it'd take a miracle to survive. Luckily, Scourge is a walking miracle, being a robot who can grow facial hair. Decepticon Shuttle spots those blasts being fired from the underside of the shuttle, so he does the prudent thing. Using his incredible speed, velocity and maneuverability, he moves to attack from above. Gaining height on the shuttle, he turns back and starts into a series of attack runs, darting in at the shuttle and picking out protrusions, weapons or windows that look like they might be important. His undercarriage releases twin plasma streams over and over again, a steady *VIP VIP VIP* unleashing with the orange clow of the powerful blasts with each pass. Abominus pushes himself out of the crushed facility, his roaring voice booming across the lands as he screams his defiance up at the Quintesson ship and its hordes. Hefting up his massive sonic cannon, he prefers to fire upon the vessel--but he's too late. The Quintessons hit him first, and Abominus hunches over in utter pain as his body glows. "NRRRUUUUUHHHHHH!!! ABOMINUSSSSSS!!! RAAAAAAHHHHH!" He stomps around aimlessly, kicking over random objects in his way. "ABOMINUSSSSS!!!" But it is useless to resist the beam, and soon enough, Abominus shudders, rattles... then demerges. Blot plops to the ground soon after, albeit still in arm mode. And not terribly active, it seems. Abominus separates into the individual Terrorcons. Dead End continues to barrel through the lines of the Quint troops, his paintjob getting more scratches and dents from various sharpened claws and feet, not to mention teeth, before he comes to a sudden stop as the beam begins to slam into each of the gestalts nearby. He throws himself into reverse before driving backward as gestalt team members start falling all around and the beams continue through them to slam into the ground behind him. Dead End transforms before leaping up into the air and aiming his air weapon down at the gathered troops and pulling the trigger causing the Sharkticons and Gatorcons to be flattened under the shot of compressed air. F-16 Falcon flies diligently upwards towards the command vessel using the nicely created swathes of destruction/clear space from the gestalt weapon fire, a few Quints bounce off of him or claw at him but all he offers is a brief comment telling them that it's just not worth their bother. Then the green beams bombard those below, ignoring the suffering that it causes both to comrade and enemy alike he turns and opens fire with everything he's got, the target being the deadly cannon, letting out a mighty war cry as he goes, "So this is how it finally ends, a miserable end indeed!" Disgusting Ape Creature Arm wiggles helplessly a few times on the ground, flicking ooze about at any unfortunate enough to be close by. Scavenger slumps, and somehow his straight angular shovel arm on his back looks droopy, weak. A low buzzing groan eminating from him. Still invisible, the flying Aquabot darts left and right as he ascends further into the air, dodging Sharkticons and trying to ensure he doesn't get close enough for him to catch scent of him. Thankfully since he is flying through the use of silent anti-gravs and not a jetpack it should help keep the Quintesson blissfully unaware of his approach. Until it is too late that is. A cloaked hand goes to DepthCharge's back, ensuring his trident is still mag-locked there. Feeling it's reassuring presence, and the dark vision of him slicing it into Quintesson brain flickering through is laser core, the ice blue Autobot steadies his nerves and then with a burst of speed shoots into the open portal of the shuttle. He doesn't know what he's going to find inside the shuttle. But he's sure the Quintesson will be in there somewhere. And that's all that matters. Once inside the ship, DepthCharge floats onward on his quest. Making sure he doesn't let his feet touch the ground. Or touch anything that might alert the Quintesson to his presence. He's just an invisible floating ghost image, pay him no heed. The cannon shot to the ship might have been a bad idea. As the beam cuts into Superion, a hole can be seen going through the giant's chest and then out the back side of his torso. The Autobot Combiner begins to show signs of pain and then the roar of it emerges from the five voices as the beast slowly begins to collapse. They try to hold on, but that much damage coursing through five minds in one body is enough to make them lose their cohesion and for the beast to stumble. As an explosion starts to ripple from the chest outward, Superion can only stand there in shock as his form begins to crumble for it's combined greatness to it's individual components. The act of merging is one thing, demerging another. But the act of being forcefully demerged is something completely different. Silverbolt just barely makes it back to his robot form before hitting the ground and tumbling a few times before coming to rest on his back. He lays there for almost half a minute as he tries to get his mind back together. Slowly, ever so slowly, he lifts his head and looks around, his voice weak as he calls to his brothers. "Guys? Guys?" It takes another while for him to painfully push himself up to his elbows as he looks around looking for his team. "Aer-Aerialbots?" "DATUM: ALIEN ENERGY RAY. DATUM: EXCRUCIATING PAIN. DATUM: EVEN MORE EXCRUCIATING PAIN." Computron announces all this while remaining motionless and giving no indication, though his inflection, that he is IN excruciating robotic pain. He simply stands there, lights flashing furiously... until he rattles apart. The individual Technobots go flying each in their own way, Lightspeed and Nosecone flung all the way off the battlefield. And Scattershot slams into the ground hard, rolling to try and reduce the impact. With a groan, he levers himself to his elbow, then puts a hand to his head. "Sweet Primus, I ain't had a headache like that since Pandoras," he mutters, slowly and gingerly getting to his feet. He squints, shielding his optics as he stares up at the encroaching Quintesson horde, then casually backhands an attacking drone. "Ooooh, yer IN for it now, Squidbillies!" he bellows, leaping into the air. He transforms into his Improbable Starfighter mode and just BLAZES upwards, guns firing wildly at the drones, Sharkticon, Gatorcons and, mostly, the Command Shuttle. "A'cuz NOW ya got SCATTERSHOT gunnin' for ya! YEEEEHAWWW!" Afterburner is seated on the ground near Scatts. "Here come the drums my left foot! You haven't seen the worst of us, Calamari!" He stands up, awkwardly, as he seems to be missing his left foot. He looks down. "Well, damn." From Exo-suit Glaive Unity , Michael Briar runs like a bat outta hell, like meatloaf. Yes, he's going fast and far. It's Quintessons, he's made it a rule not to mess with them. When the exploding starts, Whirligig positions herself to cover the worst of her patient's injuries. Debris, stuff kicked up from the falling apart gestalts knocking into her, denting and scratching her armor... as well as the bites and scratches she takes from the Quints' "pets," covering her wings and tail. Finally, she just gets fed up and, still carefully shielding Spectrum, she swings herself around, wings and tail crashing into the offending critters that get past Bluestreak. "I'm getting Spectrum out if here!" With that proclaimation, Whirligig transforms, somehow managing to get him inside her bay in the process. How she manages, we'll never know... Preparing to return to her alt, her chest area slides up, head folding out of sight, arms curling in and back. Her tail and back lift, straightening and stiffening, propellers spinning once as if to test their readiness. Landing gear lowers as her legs fold up, returning to form the bulky sides of the large VTOL military aircraft that the engineer femme uses as her alt. Several yards away from Silverbolt, a jumble of red and white starts to unfold. "owww..." The body is cracked in several places, and moving isn't making those any better. "Sil...ver...?" Fireflight clatters back to the ground, that effort having been too much right now. Streetwise tried to avoid getting hit by falling gestalt teams, while doing the best he could to remain in one piece..."Get off you trashcans!" Wheeling about into a drift to try and dislodge a couple Sharkticons that had managed to latch onto his hood, one tried to chew off the front of his guns, and neatly got his head blown off for it. Sony PSP is slowly being gathered back up, and probably fixed as best as possible...given the circumstances. Piece by piece is -lightly- set back in place, just so he isnt just wreckage strewn about the battlefield. Yet, Some of his limbs take some damage, as debris shatters and explodes about the two. This is simply because of how large Spectrum actually is, he's much taller than Whirligig is, and some damage was to be expected from this kind of firefight. Bluestreak glances over his shoulder at Whirligig and nods once. "Get going, then--I'll cover your retreat!" He replies as he opens fire with his rifle, blue bolts of electricity arcing from one drone to the next. He's trying to keep as many drones as possible at long-range, but it doesn't seem to be working too well with the sheer number of Sharkticons and drones to deal with. Hoist makes quick radio contact with the Repair Bay back home, and to Whirligig. He then starts firing at will at... well, pretty much anything that isn't Autobot. Which is to say, pretty much the majority rule here. With the gestalts, the only significant threat to his ship, dealt with most effectively. Astracius commands his elite drone recovery teams into play. You thought the normal ones were nasty, oooo bubba ain't seen ones like this. Flying out of the forward section the drons form up into 10 groups of 5. Twice as big as standard drones, they appear to have powerful shields that they interact with one another, making any hit from what little remains of the assembled errors irrelavent. Each floats over the various demerged gestalt members. They seem to have a shopping list, as each group picks up a gestalt member using considerably stronger tractor beams than their smaller counterparts. Any further resistance earns the gestalt member a shot from the drones stun pulse cannons. Since he seems to think he can merely recover and attack again, Scattershot gets a blast all of his own from the beam, full power smacking into the Technobot. First Strafe, then Slingshot, Blast Off as he suffers his own encounter with a gun beam. Next is Rippersnapper, Fireflight, Streetwise, followed by Scattershot. As Afterburner moves to stop, or at least try to stop, the kidnapping of his team mates, this earns him a blaster from the beam. Last come Scrapper, Dead End and Scavenger. Each grabbed, each chosen, each taken up to the waiting docking bays of the Quintesson command shuttles. Some mega late XMas shopping for the Quintesson it appears. And Astracius can't help but shout over the radio, "HA! So, failed did I? Inform Galvatron, here begins the demise, and the ressurection. His empire gone, mine to rise again. Now, I think it's time to take my shopping home" And poor DC, daring to infiltrate the shuttle. Alas Astracius has learned, he's installed systems that could pick up a cassette TF invis, stealthed and holding their nose. So as the aquabot bravely turns a corner there is Mako, looking right at the Autobot, "Fool. Yes. Mako get to eat fishy Autobot." And with that Mako leads the charge at the invisible DepthCharge. And he isn't the only Mako, all the stops are out on this one today, as the docking bay has a few of the model, all work together, securing the new cargo, the new subject, the new replacements for the dwindling puppy supply. Scrapper shoves whatever other Constructicons may have landed on him and stumbles to his feet. His armour has been scorched by the Quintesson blast, even though he was one of the Constructicons furthest away from the attacks. His green form is smoking from the extreme heat, and he stumbles around like a geriatric patient. "I am in great pain here!" he shouts in his gruff voice, just in case anyone wasn't aware of it. The thought of what happened to his brothers crosses the mech's mind, and Scrapper whirls back towards the Constructicons, fumbling around for his laser screwdriver. "Is everyone alright?!" he calls out, genuinely concerned for their well-being. He rushes towards Scavenger. "Scavenger, Scavenger! Mixmaster, help me with Scavenger, he's been hurt." Other Constructicons are in various stages of pain at the moment. Mixmaster and Scrapper, being feet, at least weren't too close to the beam. His worry for his squad makes the Constructicon an easy target. He figured he'd have more time before the Quints moved in to finish off the Gestalt limbs. Fried from behind by the tractor beam, the Constructicon CO is slowly lifted up into the air. "Help!" he calls out. Spacefaring Gravy Boat smolders in the distance somewhere, like a snuffed campfire. Dead End turns just in time to see the larger drones coming for him...seeing what he believes is going to be his end in sight he flies toward the drones as they approach him, drawing back his fist, but is suddenly seized by the tractor beam before being drawn back to the ship. He lowers his arm, his body relaxing as he hangs there, apparently waiting silently for whatever is awaiting him...he doesn't believe it's going to be happy, though. Scavenger hasn't the opportunity to collect himself at all to answer Scrapper. He is taken by the pulling force. He resists. He resists, damn you! And gets shot :p. Brave and stupid. And stunned. And is now a stolen purse. Tbe Blot Arm wiggles violently as the drones pick it up. It tries desperately to grab one of them but it can't reach far enough--and it only manages to get stunned for its efforts anyway. The arm goes limp, and silently lifts into the air... F-16 Falcon continues in vain to try and destroy the Quint vessel before it finishes picking up the precious collectables, but the numbers of Sharkticons grow ever larger making it harder and harder to get a clear shot. Dreadwind replies to the transmission from the Quintesson, "All empires fall and crumble into ruin until finally nothing is left but dust and noone to remember what once stood." Giving up on his pointless assault he pulls away and starts skirting the area looking for any signs of Decepticon activity other than his own knowing full well that there won't be any. Silverbolt looks over just in time to see his brothers being abducted. He tries to get up but as he pushes off the ground, his strength leaves him and he falls back. He doesn't even hesitate in his next attempt to get up, somehow getting to his feet in a stumbling sort of way. The hole in his chest is all sorts of leaking but he doesn't pay that any mind as he tries to get over to Fireflight and Slingshot. With his damage, it's hard for him to stay on his feet or move fast enough to save either of them. As he hits the ground for the last time, he remains still. Afterburner is hit by a giant cannon, and is in pain. Immediately, Whirligig takes to the air, her propellers spinning wickedly, kicking up dirt and debris and throwing off Quint lackeys left, right, and center. The big Osprey keeps going up, up, up... and as soon as she has enough altitude, she heads north, back towards the city with her wounded comrade safely inside her bay. Scrapper struggles as best he can, but he's too damaged. Were he at full strength, however, the Constructicon doubts he'd be able to escape the tractor beam. Twisting even as he rises, Scrapper watches with horror as he and Scavenger are taken into the Pravus's docking bay. He knows what Quintessons do to their victims, and he somehow suspects that he's going to wish he died from that initial blast rather than being taken alive. Scavenger is mechhandled by a Mako and secured away inside the bowels of the docking bay... vanished. "Ya think yer poof little DRONES kin stop ME?!" Scattershot demands, teeth gritted against the pain and damage he's suffering from the mysterious beam that demerged Computron. But yes, yes he did just recover and attack. Because he's Scattershot. And Scattershot doesn't lie about whining about a few missed limbs and damaged systems. "Y'ALL AIN'T SEEN NOTHN' YE-URK!" The beams lancing out from the capture drones strike him just as the second blast rips into him, tearing off his "wings" and sending his turret laser flying. "ARRRRGH!" he roars, sounding more angry than agonised. The wingless starship continues to struggle... but is unable to defeat the combination of major damage and powerful tractor beams. "Y'ALL AIN'T GONNA TAKE ME THAT EASY!" he howls hoarsely, but it seems like they're going to do just that. The terrifying Technobot brawler seems to have met his match at long last. Fireflight tried not to move so it wouldn't hurt so much, but now he's moving on his own... rising up courtesy of the tractor beam. "aaahh... Bolt?" With a final whimper, the battered Aerialbot vanishes into the clutches of the Quintesson ship. Preparing to return to her alt, her chest area slides up, head folding out of sight, arms curling in and back. Her tail and back lift, straightening and stiffening, propellers spinning once as if to test their readiness. Landing gear lowers as her legs fold up, returning to form the bulky sides of the large VTOL military aircraft that the engineer femme uses as her alt. Shock crosses DepthCharge's face as the Mako looks right at him. Thinking perhaps it might be a sheer coincidence, the Autobot oceanographer moves to the right. But the Mako's optics follow him. And then he is addressed. Well, so much for being stealthy. Dropping the cloak, DepthCharge swings his trident forward and says, "Let's do this. I've come this far, I'm not about to let the likes of you stop me." And the two clash. For a few minutes the fight goes back and forth, the Aquabot holding his own against the Mako for a time. Unfortunately it seems that DepthCharge has underestimated his surroundings, Sharkticons and Gatorcons beginning to swarm out of nooks and crannies. Very quickly DepthCharge is being pushed back along twisting corridors that seem to lead no where and everywhere all at once, with only constantly projected forcefields keeping him from the snapping mouths in front of him. And then DepthCharge stumbles past the cargo area, optic visor catching sight of some Autobots and Decepticons being abducted, drawn into the ship. "No!" DepthCharge calls out, sending as much power as he can to his forcefield systems. Trying to push back against the sharkticons and mako on the other side of the shield. But they are too many and too powerful. And further back DepthCharge is pushed, the only sight of escape an open 'jump hatch' that Sharkticons were exiting from. He shouts to the Autobots he can see, "I'll be back. Promise." Just before he jumps towards the exit hatch and falls. Bluestreak waits until Whirligig is safely up and away, then turns his sights upwards as it seems like the Quint is trying to capture some of their gestalts. The Decepticon ones, he could care less about--but the Aerialbots and the Technobots? Ohhh no. He arms his shoulder-cannons and fires a single-fire rocket or two at the ship to try to at least help somehow. As quickly as it arrived, the army of evil ascends back to the ship... The shuttle evaporates into thin air, and any sensors which could find it show it making a hasty retreat......up. F-16 Falcon watches and records the futile responses from the scattering of still functioning Autobots once more it appears that he is the sole survivor allowed to continue in his eternal torment. Banking he heads for home, who knows in a day or five he may even get enough motivation together to make a report about all this. Hoist tries to focus his feeble sensors into a very narrow beam trying to pick up the life signs of the Autobots aboard the Quint vessel. Once DepthCharge begins to fall out of the shuttle, he activates his anti-gravs and begins to circle around it. Since they know he is here now, he has no need to be stealthy. So he all out attacks the shuttle. Panels on DepthCharge's torso slide open and a stream of rockets burst forth. He's not letting that Quint escape. DepthCharge had spent half a year knowing Astracius was about, being sighted intermittently in the SOL system. DepthCharge had organized the enhancements to Metroplex specifically so that they could blast Astracius out of the skies when he appeared. And now that he has . . the upgrades weren't complete. The Autobots weren't ready. And it looks like the Technobots and Aerialbots are paying for. DepthCharge watches his rockets streak towards the ship. Determined to do his all to bring it down. The rockets streak up and up and then . . the Quintesson ship vanishes. Bluestreak watches as his own rockets soar upwards towards the ship... only to lose their tracking as the Quint ship disappears. "Oh maaaaaaaan," he murmurs, doorwings drooping. This isn't good, this isn't good at /all/. "Now what can we do?" Hoist shakes an angry fist at the skies. He had arrived just in time for the unexpected Quint attack... and basically hadn't done a thing. At least not to save his comrades from kidnapping. From Autobot Shuttle Kup brings Ol' Rusty to coordinates sent by Hoist. For a moment the Autobot Shuttle roars overhead, then as if catching a trail, abruptly breaks and pivots on a single axis. It hovers there and over the loudspeakers, Kup's gruff voice can be heard: I think I got a trail, whoever wants in better get in within 10 seconds because that's all I'm waitin'."